Oil-rich Azerbaijan is being rattled by disruption and attacks on pipelines, highlighting its tough geopolitical position and adding to worries about falling oil prices.

Having been courted by previous US governments, international interest in Azerbaijan and fellow Caspian producer Kazakhstan has waned in recent years, not least because of the increase in US shale oil production. Azerbaijan’s oil production is, in any case, thought to have peaked.

But with 848,000 b/d of output last year, Azeri production still matters.

Oil supplies coming out of Kurdistan could be affected by the outcome of a military standoff surrounding the Syrian town of Kobani. In this week’s Oilgram News column Petrodollars, Tamsin Carlisle looks at the ties between the two issues.

US gasoline prices soared at the end of August, pushing to well over $3.10/gal in the futures market and more than $3.64/gal at the pump, as the US appeared poised to strike Syria. But a bid by Russian President Vladimir Putin to take custody of embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad’s chemical weapons has taken the heat off of oil futures as well as prices at the pump.

The intensity surrounding Syria and implications that a military strike could spill over to other, larger oil-producing countries, added a premium of risk to oil prices, which also translated to higher retail gasoline prices.

Smoke is rising from violent hot spots across the Middle East and North Africa — most notably in Syria, Egypt and Libya. But while there’s no smoke without fire, have these political conflagrations already set global oil markets ablaze?

As Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces battle to keep the rebels out of the territories where the opposition have some inroads, a large part of the war-torn country’s vital energy supplies are coming from Iran.

Tehran is said to be supplying a large part of the crude that is being processed at Syria’s two state-owned refineries — the 133,000 b/d Baniyas and 107,000 b/d Homs refineries — according to trading sources.

It seems that no matter where strife develops in the world, there’s always some suggestion that oil may be playing a part. And though it may seem far-fetched to some, the petroleum aspect has been whispered as a possible backdrop to some of what’s going on in Syria.

In this week’s PetroDollars column from Platts Oilgram News, Kate Dourian looks at the history of Syria as a possible oil pipeline route, and whether it has a role in the current violence.